Spring Daze
by Corvus corone
Summary: Revised, heavily extended and COMPLETED Naru/Misaki oneshot. slash Something tells Narumi that Misaki might want more than just friendship.


_Disclaimer: If I owned Gakuen Alice, I wouldn't be writing FANfiction, would I? However, I do own the stressy mind-reading talking flower, Ryu the Flytrap, "Ten Very Exciting Methods of Orchid Fertilisation" and possibly many other things, like the warning sign on Greenhouse C._

_A/N: This used to be a very, very short introduction to a fic I was planning - then I realised I was terrible at chaptered, long stories of any sort. So after a few months of thinking about what to do with it, I've now turned it into a complete-in-itself onshot. NaruMisaki ftw! 3 Oh, and I'll have to ask you to imagine the little hearts after everything that Naru says, please. :)_

**Spring Daze**

It was a warm spring day in Alice Academy, and Narumi was sauntering down the path to the greenhouses singing merrily. Unfortunately, a strategically placed branch managed to trip him over, so after picking himself up he stopped singing and started skipping instead. (He had learnt from much past experience that Misaki's plants, like Misaki himself, are not great fans of the sound of happy singing.)

Sneakily sliding open the door to Greenhouse C and ignoring the large warning sign saying "DANGEROUS – authorised personnel only", Narumi slipped inside the hot and humid greenhouse. He decided to go for a wander around this place – after all, Misaki was in Central Town for a meeting until 3:30, and thus there was no real danger of being caught. Smiling to himself, he sailed around the greenhouse.

"Hey! Watch where you're going!" snapped a sharp voice.

Narumi whirled round at the sound of the unfamiliar voice – his first thought was that Misaki was hiding a rather prickly girlfriend in his greenhouse – and then he realised that the voice had originated from an angry-looking flower he had just sailed past. He could tell it was angry because of the angry face on it.

"Misaki didn't tell me his plants could talk now … and make faces …"

The flower sniffed and jabbed him with a low-level leaf. Ow. "You just stepped on my root! I had it perfectly cut and pruned yesterday by Misaki-sensei, and now look! Squashed!" it exclaimed, then waited for him to presumably apologise.

Not wanting to be jabbed with another low-level leaf, Narumi took the hint and apologised.

"Hmph! Well, I guess that's better than nothing. Who are you, anyway? You're not Misaki-sensei. Or any of his pupils that I've seen around here without him."

"Uh, I'm Narumi; I'm Misaki's friend. I'm sure he doesn't mind me being here …" said Narumi, crossing his fingers and wondering if he could make it up to Misaki by telling him the names of his pupils who been sneaking into his private greenhouse. Without warning, the flower shot out a green tendril and wound it around his arm. Its face crumpled into a look of concentration, and then it started speaking again.

"Huh. Well, I guess I do know about you. You're that weirdo who's often in Misaki's thoughts. Are you the gay blonde guy who likes to steal the beans?"

Narumi's first thought was, "This flower can read thoughts?!" and following that, "Misaki thinks about _me_ often?!" and then finally, "Hey! I'm not gay!"

The flower sniffed again. "Yes I can, yes he does, and yes you are. Probably. At least a bit."

Narumi wondered if there was a hole in which he could hide.

"No, there isn't. Anyway, you can go on with your fiendishly devious plan to steal the bean whips, if you can find them. Misaki always grows a few extra for you to take." The plant unwound its tendril and waved Narumi away. "Ok, you can go now. I need to do something about this root. Watch it! Don't step on me again!" it shrieked, then muttered something which sounded suspiciously like, "Idiot."

"Hey … can I ask you something?" said Narumi, a little tentatively.

The flower looked up from its inspection of its damaged root. "What?", it said, giving him a death glare in the process.

"Misaki thinks about _me_ a lot?"

"I already answered that one, thickhead. Yes, he does. Maybe he has a crush on you or something. Go and ask him yourself. Or lure him over here so I can read him again. He doesn't let me these days, not after my insightful and intelligent psychoanalysis a few weeks ago … Anyway, the bean section is over there," the flower said, gesturing with a leaf, "so go and do your thing and leave me alone."

"Uh … bye, then," said Narumi, more than a little perplexed and eager to escape from this Greenhouse of Confusion, which was undoubtedly what the C in Greenhouse C stood for. Oh, wait, the bean whips. He grabbed a few and then made his escape.

XXX

Outside the greenhouse, and once again on the path down to the Junior Division (albeit at a slower, less skippy walking pace), Narumi's thoughts felt slightly less jumbled. A look at his watch told him it was indeed almost 1:40pm and therefore time to head to his next class. He'd have to think about what that stressy flower had told him some other time - feeling relieved, because thinking about important love life matters like that was not one of Narumi's favourite things, he set off at a quicker pace.

XXX

However, pushing things to the back of one's head is never as straightforward as it sounds. Although he was meant to be handing back last week's homework and writing up various Chinese characters to be learnt by next lesson and other Japanese lesson-type whatnot, even Natsume (who never cared _what _Narumi did in lessons as long as it wasn't about him) could see that something was distracting him.

Finally, the lesson was over. Junior Class A rushed out as soon as he gave them leave to go - except for Natsume and Luca, who sullenly walked out surrounded by the Fanclub, and Mikan.

"Mikan? Don't you have some sort of lesson now?" he asked, noticing her.

"Sensei ... why don't you look so happy today?" said Mikan, looking worried. She always cared for people, didn't she?

"Huh? Oh, nothing for you to worry about, Mikan," said Narumi, giving her a cheerful smile. He had not realised that his preoccupied thoughts had been so obvious.

Mikan didn't really look too convinced, but she gave him a quick hug (being the friendly and energetic girl she was) and after a while of thinking of something to say, turned to run to her next lesson. "You would tell me if something really bad happened, wouldn't you?" she said, her hand on the door handle.

Narumi laughed. "I told you, you don't have to worry about anything anymore. No, it's nothing bad, what I'm thinking about."

Or was it? It was things like this that made friendships awkward and fall apart, and if he was going to obsess for the whole day over something as silly as this (only, his brain kept telling him this entire matter was not silly at all, but something quite serious and quite threatening), then maybe it was something to worry about.

"Euurrrggghh," he groaned out loud, sinking into his desk chair as the door slammed shut again. This really was annoying. Anyway, he reminded himself, that flower wasn't even being serious – in fact, _nothing_ it had said had been in a serious or truthful manner. Except, a little voice reminded him, the fact still remained that it could read minds and that it knew exactly who he was and why he had come to the greenhouse in the first place. Maybe he should go back, risk the tripping branches and sadistic plants, and ask that troublesome flower some more questions. That would be a good idea.

XXX

His course of action decided, at four o'clock, Narumi found himself walking down to the greenhouses for the second time that afternoon. However, this visit would be slightly different - Narumi saw that the burglar alarm had been switched on this time. Well. That meant he had about two minutes to talk to the talking flower before he had to either hide in a bush or run away as fast as he could. (He had learnt this after years of greenhouse-stealing-alarm experience.)

He considered his escape route (over the biting rose bush and through the second side door, followed by a curved route down the hill and up towards the Junior School) for a while. Then he slid the glass door across, winced at the "NEE naw NEE naw NEE naw" alarm bell and sprinted over to the plant he wanted to see.

"Who is the IDIOT who broke in and set off the alarm?!" screeched the plant, covering its petals with its upper leaves. "I was ATTEMPTING to get some sleep in here because Ryu has finally switched off its bug catcher, but NO! Some brainless blockhead HAS to set off the alarm, doesn't he? Oh, I should have known it was you again! Now what do you want?"

Narumi didn't say anything but instead hastily wrapped the one of the plant's tendril round his hand. It looked faintly surprised, and then it screwed up its face in concentration.

"Ryu is that Flytrap Version 3.2 who snaps shut with a sound like THIS -" it said as it somehow made a noise like a cannon ball dropping onto a steel block, "- every minute or so, Misaki does indeed like you in that way and of course I'm right! Look, I can tell that _you_were in love with ... er ... that brunette Yuka girl who has the Stealing Alice, so of course I can tell who my creator likes! Huh." It glared at Narumi, clearly annoyed by his lack of faith in its abilities. "And the alarm is on because I accidentally told him that you came in here at lunch. No, I didn't say anything about what I told you. What, more questions?! I don't know since _when_, I've only been conscious for a few weeks." It unwrapped itself from Narumi's hand, and quickly added in more pleading and less furious tone, "Please please don't tell him I said anything to you! He'll throw me out, I know it!"

"Uh, yeah, I won't say anything," said Narumi, as he leapt over the rosebush (which tried to bite the dangly bit on his belt as it passed) and passed through the exit door. He was just in time - as he ran along the hillside, he saw Misaki running along the path in the opposite direction towards the invaded greenhouse. Phew.

XXX

Sitting down on a handy park bench, Narumi wondered how this had happened. After all, he and Misaki had been friends for so long that surely it was impossible for anything like this to happen - the "friendship zone" or whatever. (How long now? More than two decades, maybe? Or did all that stuff ten years ago about him, Misaki and Yuka and all those things he did that he'd rather forget change their relationship afterwards?) The fact that Misaki preferred guys was nothing new, and if truth be told, he himself didn't exactly mind that sort of relationship either. (After all, 99 of the Academy thought he was gay, which was only half true.) No, what _was_ weird was the fact that they were meant to be best friends and this was exactly what was _not_ meant to happen in platonic friendships. It was just ... strange. Not normal. (But then again, he heard himself thinking, has anything about us ever been normal?)

Argh. That was not the point - the point was, what was he going to do about it? It didn't matter how _strange_ or _weird_the whole thing was, it was true and confirmed. (Actually, Narumi reminded himself, it was only true and confirmed if that plant was to be trusted, and how was he meant to trust that botanical oddity? ... That was still not the point, though.)

He _could_ just confront Misaki face to face. But then what? And if Misaki really did like him in that way and was really serious, surely he would have confessed to him already. So it could be deduced that Misaki didn't really want to be confronted and/or confront him. But that could be explained by Misaki's very private personality and phobia of human contact ... or something. The other option was _not _to say anything - but now that he knew, things just couldn't stay the same.

This was SO annoying! Even if he did decide to confront Misaki, he had no idea what he wanted to happen next. The possibility of having something more than just friendship with him wasn't something that Narumi had taken seriously before now (regardless of how many pheromone-induced kisses or how many non-pheromone-induced kisses just for the sake of seeing his face Narumi had given him). Moreover, wasn't he still in love with Yuka Azumi?

But she had Stolen that love a long time ago, and he hadn't felt anything but sharp edges and a passionate obsession to get that part of himself back since then. Feelings can change - and maybe they had. The idea of having a proper relationship, a love that wasn't unrequited, even (or was that especially?) one with his best friend, was quite appealing actually.

A tap on Narumi's shoulder jerked him out of his reverie, and he involuntarily yelped, "Erk!" Turning around, he saw Misaki himself looking at him as if he wasn't quite sure whether to scream at him or ask what was wrong.

"I was going to throw this apple at you for breaking into Greenhouse C for the second time today," said Misaki by way of explanation, holding up a painfully hard-looking gummy apple which was grinning evilly, "but then you looked so confused and plagued with life problems that I changed my mind."

"... Oh," said Narumi, who was engrossed in thinking, "Is he acting weird? He seems normal... does he _really_ like me like that?"

"Are you OK?" asked Misaki, after it was evident that Narumi was not going to continue.

There was another noticeable pause, and then - "Oh yes, I'm fine!" Narumi said.

"Normally, you would've jumped up and shouted that in my face, so you're obviously not fine," said Misaki. "Do you want to talk about something now? This evening? You not being annoying as usual is too strange for me."

XXX

It was almost midnight when Narumi burst happily into Misaki's faculty room with a cheerful "Good evening!"

Misaki put the book he was reading ("Ten Very Exciting Methods of Orchid Fertilisation") on his bedside table carefully and said, "You look (and sound) almost back to normal ... except for the pillow that you're carrying."

Putting the aforementioned pillow down next to the headboard, Narumi got into the bed with Misaki, who scowled and moved over.

"See, _that's _what the pillow's for," said Narumi.

"What do you want?"

"I'm just being friendly and socialising with you!" Narumi replied as he dragged the duvet over onto himself and got comfortable.

"Sleeping in my bed is slightly too friendly, even for you," Misaki muttered.

When Narumi didn't immediately reply, Misaki looked round to see him making some sort of awkwardly pained face, as if thinking about an annoyingly important decision. "Hey ... what's that face for?"

"Eh ... Misaki, you _like _me," said Narumi, after a few more seconds of intense decision-making had passed.

Misaki frowned at him and said, " ... with or without pheromones?"

"Without," said Narumi. "And don't try to deny it because I have third-party assurance that you do so just shut up and don't say anything," he said as he pulled Misaki down and kissed him.

Unfortunately his moment of impulsive passion didn't last very long, because Misaki jerked away at once and said furiously, "That third-party thing means someone told you; no-one should have known except for myself ... or a really good mind-reader. And I _know_ you were in my private greenhouse today. Twice."

"Uh, my secret informant made me swear not to reveal his or her name."

"You don't need to _tell _me anything. I'm not so thick that I don't even remember my own plants."

Because Misaki looked as if he was about to punch someone, Narumi decided it was probably better to let the talking plant deal with its punishment itself. But then again, perhaps it didn't _really_ deserve to be kicked out of its greenhouse home.

"It doesn't matter who or what told me whatever, what does matter is what you want to do about it!" he said.

"So what do _you _want to do about it?" said Misaki, glowering at him.

"Well ... if you like me, and I think I might like you back, then maybe we should become a proper couple ... you know?" Narumi said as he ended with his Flirty And Seductive Pose No.12 (horizontal version) (copyrighted).

"And what about Yuka? Remember _her_?"

And so Narumi explained his Yuka-related epiphany on the park bench. "So you see, I think it'll be OK," he finished. "And after thinking about this for the whole day, I've decided that getting it on with you is what I want."

Misaki considered this offer for some time. Finally, he spoke - "... right ... I'm still throwing out that plant though," he said, as Narumi wrapped his arms around him and attempted to kiss him again. This time, however, he felt Misaki start to kiss back; a peculiar warm and fuzzy feeling began to well up in his stomach. It was all getting a bit too mushy and fluffy, so Narumi pulled back slightly.

"School teachers aren't supposed to have scandalous gay relations," he teased.

"Huh, you're too much of a girl to count as a man, so this is fine."

"For your sake I'll take that as a compliment," said Narumi, cheesily grinning and somehow managing to lick Misaki's cheek at the same time. "Oh, and we're conveniently in a double bed with the whole night still to pass, so ... " he said, his hands brushing across Misaki's chest to take off his top, and his body shifting to lie more fully on him.

Alas, the only effect that that had was for Misaki to push him off and say, "Nonono no NO go away Naru! There _is_ such a thing as 'going too fast' ... although you probably haven't heard of it. Look, I'm going to sleep now." And with that he turned off the light.

Ah well. Maybe next time.

XXX

_A/N again: A Few Points Of Interest.  
__**One** - the line "you're too much of a girl to count as a man" and the reply, "I'll take that as a compliment" or some variation thereof has been floating around my head demanding to be written for about ... nine months? OMG FINALLY.  
**Two** - you have no idea how hard it was and how long it took to write that last bedroom scene. (Actually, you probably do, seeing as I just told you it's been vaguely in my head for nine months. It's like having a baby.) I still have no idea why I was so writer's-blocked up with it.  
**Three **- no-one knows Naru or Misaki's first names, and I still find it weird calling them by their surnames - but Mr Narumi sounds a hundred times weirder, so I hope you don't mind.  
**Four **- this is like the only explicitly Naru/Misaki fic with some actual plot (however small, or terrible) in existance. If anyone knows of any others, please tell me. I'm desperate._


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